The present invention relates to a visor for a vehicle, and more particularly, to a visor having a two part core and relates to a method for forming the visor core.
A conventional visor, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,570,990 and 4,763,946, has a core having a clam shell arrangement. The core is formed by two separate halves of polymeric material which are joined side-by-side by a hinge located between the two core halves. An outer side of each of the two halves is covered with a vinyl or upholstery material cover that includes a foam layer. The cover is wrapped around an outer surface of each of the two halves so that excess material of the cover is inserted into an inner surface of each of the halves. The excess cover material is bonded to the inner surfaces of the two halves to secure the cover to the core.
Once the cover has been bonded onto the two core halves, the two halves are folded together by pivoting the two halves about the hinge located between them. The core halves are then heated by direct heating to melt the polymeric material and to thereby permanently join the core halves.
However, a visor core formed by the process described above requires the use of a hinge which must be formed and then connected to each of the two core halves so that the core halves will be aligned relative to each other which ensures accurate alignment of the core halves when the core halves are joined to form the core. Thus, the use of a hinge increases the cost and manufacturing steps required to form a visor core. In addition, the hinge does not always provide accurate alignment between the two core halves because the two core halves are aligned only along a single line where the hinge is located.